2011.02.21

The same weekend, I was in the operating theater with an older man with multiple medical problems who needed an emergency operation. Just before induction of anesthesia, a resident from labor and delivery came to the OR because a pregnant woman needed an emergency Cesarean section. There was one anesthetist in house and our initial efforts to contact back-up help by phone and courier were unsuccessful. Standing over my patient in the OR, the anesthetist and I looked at each other both querying what we should do. “Who has the better chance of living?” The answer was clearly the young mother, not to mention the fact that in her case two lives were at stake. We decided to leave my patient on the OR table with someone watching him while the anesthetist readied another OR and I went looking for more anesthesia help.

These situations are far from unique and certainly not as dramatic as those that many other physicians in developing countries experience on a daily basis. In developed countries, terms like “access to care” and “limited resources” are bandied about by students and politicians alike in support of their own social agendas often without a realization of what people in the 2/3-world experience every day. Sub-Saharan Africa has a dire need for healthcare where “limited resources” may mean “no resources” for millions of people.

2011.02.03

"If the protesters are modern-day revolutionaries, in face of these young Jeffersons and Washingtons we are siding with the king of England. This puts us on the wrong side of history, and it will have a deep impact on the relations between the United States and the future democratic Egypt."